DevCodeCamp Launches Women Can Code Grants Aimed to Close the Gender Gap in Technology

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Inspiring Women to Code and Enter Local Tech Jobs

Women Are Underrepresented in Technology

“We have to first acknowledge that the gender gap does indeed exist and we need to do something about it.

Milwaukee, WI (PRWEB)April 28, 2016

DevCodeCamp, Milwaukee's immersive coding bootcamp, today launched a “Woman Can Code” initiative to raise awareness of the need for more women in tech.

As part of the initiative, devCodeCamp is offering grants to help drive up the number of women coders - $5,000 grant to women for its software developer bootcamp for its May and July 2016 cohorts.

“One of the first questions I get asked by companies is do we have any women developers they can hire?” said Wendy Mirenda, community manager at devCodeCamp. “Unfortunately, like most of the rest of the tech industry, the majority of our students are men. That needs to change.”

The baseline statistics about women in tech are startling:

In 1984, 37% of Computer Science degree grads were women. Today that number has shrunk to only 18%.

Silicon Valley recently disclosed that less than 30% of their engineering workforce are women and only about a quarter of those are in software and web development roles.

Yet the job opportunities are greater than ever before:

The U.S. Department of Labor projects that by 2020 there will be 1.4 million computer specialist job openings. To fill even half the openings, that means 700,000 women will need to fill computing jobs.

“What we do know is women belong in software development, aka coding positions,” said Mirenda. “DevCodeCamp believes to get there, we have to first acknowledge that the gender gap does indeed exist and we need to do something about it. Women need to be provided the opportunity to participate in a quality education that provides the coding skills that employers require for these in-demand jobs.”
To accomplish devCodeCamp’s goal of increasing the available hiring pool of women trained for software positions, devCodeCamp will employ its business model and tailor it to women:

ENGAGE: creating awareness of both the problem, the opportunities and the devCodeCamp solution
EMPOWER: specifically tailor our messaging to inspire all women
EDUCATION: surround our lecture-code-project learning model with empathy to women
EMPLOYMENT: work during our deployment period on introducing women graduates to area companies that have open positions and are already aware of their corporate responsibility to hire qualified women candidates

“Through the devCodeCamp Women Can Code Initiative we have made a commitment for women to receive the necessary computer programming training needed for employment with Milwaukee area companies,” said Mirenda. “We want to be part of the solution of closing the gender gap in the tech world.”

For more information on how women can empower themselves in the tech world, they can review the Grant opportunity here at http://www.womencancode.com